


One-Shot Sherlock

by Drakey



Series: One Shot Sherlock [1]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Deductive Reasoning, Piracy, sherlock wants to be a pirate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-29
Updated: 2013-10-29
Packaged: 2017-12-30 20:15:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drakey/pseuds/Drakey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He only ever fires once to stop a ship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One-Shot Sherlock

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LapOtter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapOtter/gifts).



> I was going to try to use BBC Sherlock, but it wandered off into literary Sherlock. Yes, this is based off of that one line in the BBC Sherlock series where Mycroft says Sherlock wanted to be a pirate when he was young. The concept sprang pretty much fully-formed into my head at that point, down to the ridiculous nature of the last bit. I'm sure something similar happens to every writer who sees that bit, but, c'est la vie.
> 
> Anyways, the point is that Sherlock Holmes would have been a horrifying, but very economical, pirate.

The first report sounded like an excuse for poor maintenance. A single cannonball through the rigging that just happened to undo every vital knot when the tightened rope snapped back and leave the sails on the deck? The admiralty dismissed Captain Stangerson at once.

When Captain Small reported a cannonball through the side of his ship that so badly flooded the cargo compartment he was forced to heave to and surrender, all his cargo having shifted to port when the stores of grain were torn out of their bags by the shot, the admiralty dismissed him and threatened to execute anyone who used such a ridiculous excuse again.

Three ships at once limped back into port four months later. The mast of one had been shot clean through. The cannonball had run through the rigging just so, and the sail dragging in the water had driven the first victim into her escort, locking both ships together quite thoroughly. The pirates had then boarded, taken everything, and, with one shot, had thoroughly immobilized the last ship.

Now, Sherlock Holmes, Scourge of the Caribbean Sea, had his sights set on a Spanish Galleon.

"It's too big," Watson growled out of his massive (if quite well-kept) beard. 

"That's a common misperception of lesser men," Sherlock replied, studying the fleeing Spaniard through his telescope. 

"It has multiple sails," Watson objected.

"And a careless cabin boy who happens to be a woman posing as a man."

"Really, Holmes!"

"No trained sailor would tie the rigging in such a way, but a woman would certainly tie her scarf so."

Watson held out his hand, and Sherlock handed him the telescope. After a moment, Watson handed it back. "Perhaps he is simply a poor sailor," he said stubbornly.

"A poor sailor wouldn't follow one particular member of the crew as slavishly as this girl does."

"A woman posing as a man cannot be used to halt a galleon," Watson insisted.

"I should think not. No, the game shall not be that difficult."

"Really!" 

Watson's dissent, Sherlock reflected, should be the sign by which he was recognized soon enough.

"We shall pull up alongside her. I will take her with a musket ball. Give the order, Mister Watson." He handed the telescope over and went to retrieve a musket.

Watson stared after the captain, then began resignedly to give orders. The chase went on, but the galleon couldn't escape the swift-sailing _Irene_ , and soon they had pulled up to port of her. 

Of course, by then, Sherlock's musket ball had knocked over the flask of oil in the captain's cabin onto the lamp by which the captain had been trying to record a log entry--he was a man who wrote when he was nervous--and all Sherlock and his crew had to do was put out the fire, take the cargo, and go while the panicky Spaniards tried to swim to their ship. Watson quietly ordered the galleon stopped so that her crew had a chance of reaching her in time.

Sherlock, Watson thought, would have, but he was too busy devising how to defeat the English Navy with a gently-thrown stick.


End file.
